"Don't give over all of your critical faculties to people in power, no matter how admirable those people may appear to be. Beneath the hero's facade yo...
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.
~ Frank Herbert ~
Photo by Ákos Szabó
Photo by Ian Turnell
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.
More Frank Herbert quotes
"The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.
"Dune was a world of paradox now—a world under siege, yet the center of power. To come under siege, he decided, was the inevitable fate of power.
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.
"Create or arouse such unbridled forces and you built carnal fantasies of enormous complexity. You could lead whole populations around by their desires...
"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the co...
"One must always keep the tools of statecraft sharp and ready. Power and fear – sharp and ready.
"On Caladan, we ruled with sea and air power," the Duke said. "Here, we must scrabble for desert power. This is your inheritance, Paul.
"Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social powe...
"The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend toward each other. Between depriving a ...
"Deceit is a tool of statecraft," Irulan agreed."There are limits to power, as those who put their hopes in a constitution always discover," Paul said.
"Police are inevitably corrupted. ... Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position...
"Small souls who seek power over others first destroy the faith those others might have in themselves.
"Liberty and Freedom are complex concepts. They go back to religious ideas of Free Will and are related to the Ruler Mystique implicit in absolute mona...
"We are plagued by a corrupt polity which promotes unlawful and/or immoral behaviour. Public interest has no practical significance in everyday behavio...